Heaven, Hell and all the places in between
by syenyashadowlight
Summary: Lauren Walker is about to start her fourth year at Hogwarts. She's always been weird for a Slytherin with all her Gryffindor friends though her boyfriend Draco puts up with it. But she's having trouble putting up with him...
1. The word 'clobbered'

**Okay, this is my first fanfic, a Harry Potter one 'cos I just re-read the series and I'm into them now. (I'm usually into any books I've read recently.) It's from the point of view of a character I made up.**

**Incidentally I'm writing from Australia where term starts in February, and Christmas is in summer.**

I stood on platform 9 ¾ with my parents, looking around.

"Lozza!" squealed my best friend, Pansy Parkinson, and ran up to me. I hadn't seen her all summer, and I hugged her back enthusiastically, but I was still searching over her shoulder.

"He's over there," pointed Pansy, guessing what I was looking for. I followed her finger and saw them: all tall and blond, Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy — and their son, my boyfriend, Draco.

He caught sight of me too, and came over. I threw myself at him and he laughed. I'd seen _him_ not long ago, when his parents took us both to the Quidditch World Cup.

"Hello, Lauren," said Narcissa, and inclined her head to my parents. I knew she and Lucius didn't approve of me much, nor my muggle parents, but they were always nice to me and polite to them.

"Shall we go find a compartment?" suggested Draco.

I smiled, said goodbye to my parents, promised to write whenever I didn't have too much homework, and boarded the train with Draco and Pansy to start my fourth year at Hogwarts.

I smiled at and greeted a few friends I saw, including Blaise Zabini, Hannah Abbott, Harry Potter, Dean Thomas and his best friend Seamus Finnigan.

"Gryffindors," sniffed Draco. "How can you be friends with them, Loz?"

"Same way I can be friends with anybody."

Draco didn't talk about my inter-house friendships for the rest of the day.

"So how was the cup?" asked Pansy, and Blaise nodded eagerly.

"Ah, Ireland won 160-150," said Draco.

"Krum lost?"

"He did get clobbered," I said.

Draco stared at me. "Please say you did not just use the word 'clobbered'."

"I did not just use the word 'clobbered'," I repeated obediently.

Blaise suspiciously nibbled the end off a black every-flavour bean, then pulled a face and chucked it out the window.

"What is it?" asked Pansy.

"Ink."

"Ewww," Pansy and I said.

He took a brown one, then immediately spat it out and gulped down a chocolate frog.

"What was _that_ one?"

"Shit."

"EWWW!"

"Want one?" Blaise offered me the box.

"No!"

He shrugged and helped himself to another one.

"You're a sucker for punishment," Draco shook his head. "What do you think of the _event_ at Hogwarts this year?"

We blinked. "Event? What event?"

He leaned forward. "The Yule ball — and the Triwizard Tournament."

I blinked again, but the others' eyes widened. "Wow," said Blaise. "That's what we needed dresses for!" said Pansy, and pulled hers out of her trunk to show us. "What do you think?" she asked, mainly to me.

"Great," I said. They were pink and very frilly.

"Let's see yours," she said.

I sighed, opened my trunk and hunted around for my dress. Eventually I located it and held it up for her to see. It was dark blue satin, with a crossover front and satin straps that twisted at the back.

"Oh wow," breathed Pansy, "You are going to look fucking amazing."

I smiled, folded up the dress and put it back. "So, Draco, what's the Triwizard Tournament?"

He launched into an explanation. "Well, it's a tournament between three magic schools — Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. A champion is selected from each school to compete and they have to get through tasks.

"It's very dangerous, and fucking advanced, of course, but the winner gets the cup and a thousand galleons prize money. Not to mention their name goes down in history forever. It's not very common, see, ever since the death toll went up… you entering, Blaise?"

"Think I might," said Blaise lazily, leaning back in his seat.

"I think I will, too," said Draco.

"I thought you said there was death toll?" I asked him.

Draco shrugged off my worries. "That was years ago."

I nibbled on a pasty. "Who's the DADA teacher this year?"

"I'm not sure," said Draco, frowning. "Father didn't say."

"Didn't know, more like," giggled a bitchy voice from the doorway. We didn't have to look up to know exactly who it was: Lavender Brown.

"Hello. Goodbye." We chanted at the same time.

"Parkinson, what _is_ that?" she demanded, staring in disgust at Pansy's dress which she was still holding in her lap.

"You can talk," retorted Pansy, eyeing Lavender's bright yellow top and tights with equal disgust.

"Fuck off, Lavender."

"I don't think so," said Lavender, and the group of girls around her giggled stupidly. "What did you bring, Walker?" she asked me. "Are you going to wear a puffer fish dress too?"

Pansy glared at her, tears filling her eyes.

"Okay, it's official. You've won bitchiest banana," I told her. "Now _get out_."

Laughing like demented hyenas, Lavender's pack moved off.

Draco lay down across the seat with his head in my lap. I stroked his head and he closed his eyes.

"Reckon we'll get the Quidditch cup this year?" asked Zabini.

"Oh, sure, if I can help it," said Draco. "I am not losing to Potter again."

I stopped paying attention as Blaise and Draco started to talk about Quidditch. As much as I enjoyed playing and watching the game, I found Quidditch conversations incredibly boring — and I knew the boys would be a while.

"Hi, Lauren!"

"Hey, Loz! How were your holidays?"

I turned. Dean and Harry were waving at me, with Ron and Seamus.

"Yeah, good, yours?" I replied, giving Dean a hug.

"Yeah, it was okay," he replied. "Hey, where's my hug?" demanded Harry. I rolled my eyes and gave him a hug too. "Happy now?"

"Sort of."

"Lauren!"

"Hermione!"

"C'mon, Loz, let's go," said Draco, glaring at the Gryffindors coldly. I rolled my eyes at them so he couldn't see and winked. "See you later."

We went to the great hall in the carriages — it was raining heavily, despite being summer, and we sprinted to the carriages.

When we got to the castle we hurried into the great hall: there was an enchantment around the door that dried you off as you walked in.

We walked to the Slytherin table and sat down next to Draco's Quidditch captain, Marcus Flint.

We cheered as Graham Pritchard and Malcolm Baddock became Slytherins.

After we'd eaten, the Headmaster got up to make his usual speeches. I only half-paid attention to most of it.

"…it is also my painful duty to inform you that the inter-house Quidditch Cup will not take place this year—"

All of the Hogwarts Quidditch players — and quite a lot of others — howled in protest.

"What!?" said Draco.

"He can't do that!" agreed Flint.

"—because of an event at the school beginning in March and continuing for most of the school year — the Triwizard Tournament."

There was a lot of gasping and exclaiming all over the hall. Dumbledore started to explain about the tournament, and having heard it already from Draco, I didn't pay much attention. I wasn't the only one; throughout the hall a lot of people were whispering excitedly.

Then he announced the age restriction, and the howls of protest started up again. Draco and Blaise looked furious, but Dumbledore continued, placidly ignoring the sudden change in everyone's expressions.

"The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving in March, and I trust you to extend every courtesy to our foreign guests during their stay."

He sounded just like my mother whenever we had guests over.

"And I would like to welcome our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Moody."

Draco leaned over and whispered, "He's a retired Auror at the Ministry. Father says he's gone prematurely senile."

"He sure looks mental," I muttered back, staring at the scarred and deformed man who was meant to teach us how to protect ourselves.

There was a sudden scraping of chairs and the hall exploded into noise and I realized that the headmaster must have dismissed the students.

I went with the rest of the Slytherins to our common room, said a quick goodnight to Draco and Blaise, and went up to my dormitory.

I quickly got changed, fell into bed and was asleep in minutes.

**Seamus:**

Ron and Harry met Dean and I on the train.

"Hey guys. Good holidays?"

"Pretty good, yours?"

"Yeah, okay. I spent the last few weeks with Ron," replied Harry. "We went to the world cup."

"Dude we saw you there."

"Oh. Yeah. Duh." I rolled my eyes at him. "Hey, look, there's Loz," said Dean. "Let's go say— oh. Never mind." My head had snapped around when he said "Loz". I watched her throw herself at Draco Malfoy, that fucking asshole. "Yeah," I muttered. "Never mind."

The smile on her face over his shoulder kept flashing into my mind all throughout the journey.

"Hi, Lauren!" called Harry.

"Hey, Loz! How were your holidays?" added Dean.

She turned, pulling her hand out of Malfoy's. "Yeah, good, yours?" she asked, ignoring me completely and giving Dean a hug so tight her boobs smushed against his chest. Malfoy glared at him coldly.

"Yeah, it was okay," he replied.

"Hey, where's my hug?" she rolled her eyes and hugged him too. _What about me_? I thought. "Happy now?" she laughed.

"Sort of."

"Lauren!"

"Hermione!" they didn't get any further:

"C'mon, Loz, let's go," her stupid boyfriend. He gave us a foul — but for him, perfectly normal — look. She rolled her eyes at us, but slid her hand back into his. "See you later." She winked at me.

Actually, I think she was winking at Dean. But I can pretend.

**Please review! I know it's my first fanfic but it will seriously do my ego a lot of good**


	2. Dear Mum

_Dear mum,_

_I found out on the first night what we needed the dress for. Hogwarts is hosting the Triwizard Tournament this year, which is a tournament between Hogwarts and two other magic schools, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. Part of it is the Yule ball, which will be in the Easter holidays, so I'll be staying here for that. The delegations from the French and Bulgarian schools will be arriving at the beginning of March._

_Our new DADA teacher used to work at the ministry, and I'm reserving judgement for a while 'cos while he used to be head of the Auror office (dark wizard-catchers) he's got one wooden leg, one normal eye, one eye that can see through the back of his head and half a nose. Professor Snape's a bit angry that he missed out on the job, again._

_Quidditch has been cancelled this year because of the tournament, and as I'm sure you can imagine, Draco has been quite vocal about his complaints. _

_Care of Magical Creatures has been tipping from dead boring to plain dangerous since Professor Hagrid was appointed. We had hippogriffs first, which sliced Draco's arm open, then flobberworms, which seemed to only eat, breed and die. Now we've got blast-ended skrewts. They move by like this rocket-propulsion thing, shooting fire out their asses. Dean got burned pretty bad. Oh, and they've got stings and blood-sucking suckers all over their underside. I'm not entirely sure, as Draco pointed out, why exactly we'd _want_ to take care of them. Other than burn, bite and sting, they do about as much as flobberworms, and I know which ones I would prefer._

_Herbology's not that much better at the moment. We're collecting pus from Bubotubers. Don't ask. It's disgusting. _

_Another thing about professor Moody is that he still seems to believe in corporal punishment. Draco tried to jinx Harry the other day — you know how they are — and got transfigured into a ferret and bounced around the room. Fortunately professor McGonagall came and put a stop to it. Draco wasn't hurt, but it was a bit scary. You could tell the Gryffindors found it hilarious. _

_I think I'll be dropping divination the moment I've finished my OWL. It's such a waste of time — Draco, Pansy and I got top marks for making up an entire series of tragic accidents over the next month. So did Harry and Ron, they told me. It was rather amusing, but there is any number of better ways I could spend my time. Next week, I will be burned, cursed three times, almost drowned, break both my legs and fall off my broom from fifteen metres. Prepare your get-well cards._

_Well say hello to everyone for me and I will take lots of pictures of the tournament for you. See you in the second holidays._

_Love,_

_Lauren_


	3. Beauxbatons Bitches

We assembled outside the castle to await the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students. The teachers were going spastic with stress, and professor McGonagall was marching up and down the assembled lines of students, making sure everyone was absolutely perfect. I had my camera ready. I was a sucker for nostalgia, and there was no way I was going to miss this.

Autumn was beginning to set in, and it was cold. I pulled my cloak around myself, wishing I'd worn my thicker tights — although stockings looked so much sexier, my legs were freezing.

Pansy was thinking along the same lines. "Geez, are they fucking coming already?" she wrapped her arms around herself and shivered.

Beauxbatons came first, in a massive flying carriage. Their headmistress came out and I blinked. She was massive, she looked part-giant. She greeted our headmaster, and her students came out, all senior girls in floaty pale blue dresses and matching strappy heels, their hair done immaculately and their faces painted to almost but not quite overkill. I thought they looked like a bunch of bitches and smirked when I saw a lot of them shivering. I glanced at Draco; his face was carefully blank, which meant he was trying to hide something. I narrowed my eyes at him.

Blaise nudged him and said something I couldn't hear. They both laughed quietly as they watched the girls flounce into rows to wait for the Durmstrang students. Draco turned to me and saw my expression. He went a bit pink and smiled sheepishly. I punched him and McGonagall gave a pointed cough, glaring in our direction. We turned back to the front.

"There!" Someone yelled. I followed where they were pointing and saw a couple of ripples on the lake...

Then water flew upwards like a bomb had been set off under it, and there was the ship.

"Wow."

"Yeah."

A goateed man with greying hair disembarked from the ship. He looked around, then strode up to Dumbledore and shook his hand. He said something that we couldn't hear, smiling as though he was greeting an old friend. Then the Durmstrang guys got off the ship.

It was my turn to keep a blank face as I looked at them. They got into rows. They were all dressed in black with fur coats. A few of them were plain, but most of them were fucking _hawt —_ then I saw Draco's expression, felt the heat rise in my cheeks and grinned sheepishly. He rolled his eyes.

The headmaster invited the two schools inside.

"Come, Viktor," called the Durmstrang Headmaster, and one of the guys came up to stand just behind him, walking into the school before all the others. Whispers erupted throughout both Hogwarts and Beauxbatons students.

"Is that...?"

"No way!"

"_Viktor Krum_!"

All organization was abandoned as we crowded into the great hall, and I saw Ron and Harry.

"Lauren! Did you see?"

"Of course I saw! I'm not blind, everyone saw that, Ron."

He completely ignored me. "It was Viktor Krum! The seeker for Bulgaria! In the flesh! I'm going to get his autograph, what about you, Harry? Oh fuck... I don't have any quills on me... Seamus, do you have—?" I wandered towards the Slytherin table as we got inside, and sat down next to Draco as usual. The visiting schools hesitated for a moment, before The Beauxbatons sat at Ravenclaw's table and the Durmstrang guys sat down at ours. Draco smirked at Ron across the hall, who was gazing almost hungrily at Krum.

The food appeared, and conversations started all over the hall.

After a while, one of the Beauxbatons Bitches — as I found myself thinking of them — stood up and went over to the Gryffindor table. Most people seemed to be looking at her, and I studied her as she took a dish from the Gryffindors and pranced back to the Ravenclaw table. She had long blonde hair, down to her waist, and the most beautiful face... I felt a pang of jealousy and a deep, dark dislike of the girl immediately, which was only strengthened when I noticed Draco following her progress across the hall, his mouth hanging open. I stared at him, but he didn't seem to notice. I waved a hand in front of his face and he went back to eating, avoiding my eye.

**O****kay... short chapter, but I'm not that great at writing long chapters. Be more soon...ish... whenever I get around to writing more...**

**Please review!!!**


	4. Mélanie

**Hi!**

**Sorry for the wait, for those people who are actually following and noticed that there was one.**

**I'm starting this chapter with a few notices:**

**Firstly, there WILL be sex — or at least implied ideas — in this story, so if it bothers you, you might want to either not read it or skip those sections.**

**Secondly, I don't own any of the characters, places, names or anything (*sniff*) — they all belong to JK except for Loz Walker. She's mine! =P (Oh, and I own Holly and Alexandra too. But being there only to fill the dormitory, they don't really count.)**

**So that being said, on with the story! Please review!**

"Oh. My. Fucking. God," gasped Pansy, toppling gracefully onto her bed. "Did you see those Durmstrang guys!?"

"They were _hawt_!" squealed Millie.

"Lozza?"

"I'm going out with Draco," I said from behind my hangings, getting into PJs. "Geez," groaned Pansy. "Stop being so righteous! We know you think they're hot! Everyone thinks they're hot! Speak your mind!"

"'Cos she _never_ speaks her mind," noted Millie sarcastically.

"Yeah, they were hot," I grinned to myself. "Did you see that blond one standing next to Krum?"

"Yes!" gasped Pansy, sighing wistfully. I stuck my head out of the curtains. "I hope," she continued, "I can speak to him before the ball…" I shot a look at Millie. "What?" demanded Pansy. "Nothing," I grinned at her sweetly. "Tell me!" she begged. "It's just… everyone's taken it as said you're going with Blaise."

"Blaise Zabini?" her fake puzzled tone was pathetic.

"No, the other Blaise. Well duh! How many Blaises do we know?"

"You're not, then?" asked Millie.

"Well… not officially…"

"Officially?" I asked, jumping on the conditional. "Does that mean he's already asked you?"

"No… not exactly…"

"You want to go with him."

"Of course she does," I scoffed. "You've had a crush on him for years, haven't you, Pansy? Only neither of them have the balls—"

"Shut up!" squealed Pansy. Millie and I both laughed. "Don't worry. You go with that Durmstrang toy boy to the ball and we'll see what he really thinks of you."

"Toy boy!?" she shrieked, snatching up her pillow and advancing on me. "_Toy boy_!?" she and Millie jumped on me and whacked me with their pillows until they were laughing too hard to do anything more than feebly lift the pillows and drop them on me.

"Enough, enough," I said, laughing so hard I had to gasp for breath. "C'mon, let's go to bed," I said as Holly Lexis and Alexandra Karmen came in. "We have to stay awake through our lessons tomorrow."

"We have History of Magic, though," said Millie. "We can catch up extra sleep then."

I had to agree.

I waited for hours for the girls to fall asleep. When their breathing finally became even, and Holly started snoring, I crept out.

"I've been waiting." I could imagine the pout on Draco's lips as I slid under his blankets. "Sorry," I whispered back. "The girls took forever to fall asleep."

He slid his arms around me and kissed my jaw. I guessed, from the way his head bumped against mine, that he'd been aiming for my lips but had missed in the darkness. I giggled.

"Shh," he said and rolled over on top of me.

"Okay," I murmured and kissed him back.

**Two weeks later:**

I very rarely slept in the girls' dorms, but they pretended not to notice, and I pretended to think they didn't know, and no-one ever mentioned it.

Draco and I went down to breakfast together. "I wish we had Quidditch," he grumbled. "I've got nothing to do in free period this afternoon."

"They are for homework, you know," I pointed out as I helped myself to cereal.

"Yeah, _but_," he said.

"_But_ you're really behind," I told him. "We can find an empty classroom this afternoon and practice Charms."

"Yeah, okay," he said reluctantly, then brightened. "First task tomorrow."

"If they weren't Hogwarts I'd really hope Potter and Diggory lose," said Marcus Flint.

"I hope Diggory wins," said Millie.

"You're only saying that because he's good-looking," accused Blaise.

"No," sniffed Millie. "I'm saying that because out of the two Hogwarts champions Diggory's by far the better one."

"Yeah," agreed Flint. "I reckon the Beauxbatons babe will win."

"You only _want_ her to win," I sniffed, thinking coldly of the blonde who Draco had been ogling at when she'd first arrived.

"I can't believe Potter got chosen," Blaise changed the subject.

"I know!" ranted Marcus. "How? He's only fourteen, and not even the people who were almost seventeen could get through…"

"Because he cheated," replied Draco immediately. "He must've got someone older to put his name in for him. Or something. Probably couldn't resist the attention…"

"He didn't ask for this, Draco," I said quietly.

"So _he _says," he responded. "But haven't you noticed? First year: he should have been expelled for disobeying rules, but no, he gets attention. Second year: he saves that blood-traitor bitch from the Chamber of Secrets when it was her own fault it was opened in the first place. Third year: he helped Sirius Black escape, he attacked Professor Snape, and he got away with that without a blemish on Potter's Perfect record… now this year, he should be expelled — again — for cheating, but no, he gets to compete!"

I didn't reply. I'd learned it was hopeless to get Harry or Draco to get over their rivalry.

"What's this afternoon?" asked Pansy.

"Care of Magical Creatures," replied Draco promptly. We all groaned. "We'd better move on from skrewts soon," I muttered darkly. I'd been dragged three metres by one last week, and I still had a couple of burns.

"Tell me about it," Draco rolled his eyes. "I can tell you, if my father knew about this—"

"—he'd have absolutely no power over what happened next," said Marcus.

"Of course he would," said Draco, affronted. "He got rid of the hippogriff, didn't he?"

"Because you had your arm in a sling for weeks and missed a Quidditch match," retorted Marcus.

Draco grinned. "Oh, I don't know… perhaps I could get grievously injured by a skrewt and have them declared 'dangerous'… two offences in as many years' office… then if we all fail our exams, Dumbledore wouldn't _really_ have a choice but to fire him."

"I'm not saying I wouldn't prefer a competent teacher, but I'm not sure that's such a good idea."

"Why not?"

"Well, firstly the Gryffindors wouldn't deliberately fail their exams. Secondly, they've probably been very careful not to hurt themselves — so they can say that Hagrid told them how not to get burned stung or sucked… thirdly, the governors don't have the power to sack teachers directly, and Dumbledore would keep him as long as he possibly could—"

"We need a petition," said Millie abruptly.

I shook my head. "We'd need a majority for a petition to work, and I'll bet you if people know that Slytherins started it none of the other houses would sign, even if they wanted another teacher."

"You've thought this through very thoroughly, haven't you?"

I smiled. "Like I said. I would prefer a competent teacher."

"Wouldn't everyone?"

"Yes! Even Harry and Hermione want another teacher, but they'd _never_ help sack Hagrid. Actually, Draco, Hermione said — in her words — 'actually, I think he's right. The best thing to do would be to stamp on the lot of them before they start attacking us all.'"

"I don't need support from a mudblood," he said coldly.

My fists clenched under the table. "Come on," I said curtly. "We'll be late."

"Who cares?" Draco retorted, but stood up.

"Not me," said Blaise. "I wouldn't mind missing class completely, actually. A complete waste of time…"

At free period I went off to find Draco. He wasn't in the common room, or his dormitory… perhaps he was still having lunch? But he wasn't in the great hall either…

I eventually found him sitting down by the lake with someone. A someone in a blue dress with dark, curly hair, laughing at something he said.

Biting my lip hard, I crept up behind him and clamped my hand over his eyes. "Guess who?" I asked in my sweetest voice. He wriggled out of my arms and turned to look at me. "Oh, hi!" he said brightly, but I didn't miss the guilty flash in his eyes. "Who's this?" I asked, still in that sweet voice. "Oh," he said, glancing at the Beauxbatons Bitch. "This is Mélanie. _Mélanie, c'est Lauren, ma petite amie._"

She frowned slightly and raised an eyebrow. "_Ta petite amie_?"

"It seems," I said, "That Mélanie here didn't know you had a girlfriend."

"What do you mean?" he asked. "Don't be ridiculous, Lozza — we were talking about the tournament."

"Oh really?" I turned to Mélanie. "_Quel âge il a_?"

She frowned between us. "Er… dix-sept…?"

"Seventeen." I turned to Draco, who looked back at me with a slightly panicked expression. "You told her you were seventeen."

"I — er — didn't know you spoke French…?"

I slapped him across the face and stalked off.

"Lozza! Lauren, are you alright?" Dean called at me, walking with Seamus. I shrugged in answer to his question. "What happened?" he asked. I paused, considering. "I…" I didn't know where to begin.

"Walk with us," Dean offered.

**Seamus:**

"Do you mind?" she asked me. "No! No," I said quickly, stammering like an idiot. She fell into step beside Dean. "Where's Malfoy?" he asked.

Two angry blotches of colour rose in her cheeks. "_Dear_ Draco is busy entertaining one of our French guests," she responded bitterly.

"Oh." Said Dean.

"It'll be fine," I said, patting her arm awkwardly. Why was I comforting her? I didn't want her to forgive him. She dropped her head and her long dark hair fell across her face. "He's right," said Dean, "Malfoy's just a guy like any other, Loz. He'll get over it."

She gave us an aggrieved look. "He told her he was seventeen!" I hastily turned my laugh into a cough as she turned to me, her eyes full of hurt. "He'll get over it," repeated Dean. "She'll find out he's fourteen, or something, and he'll come running back begging your forgiveness." I smiled at her and she smiled back weakly, looking unconvinced.

"How's your hand?" she asked Dean, changing the subject. He glanced down at the skrewt burn. "Ah, fine. How about yours?"

"Mine's almost gone already," she said, shrugging. "It wasn't that bad."

"Are you kidding? It went right up your arm!"

"And set fire to your hair."

She rolled her eyes and pushed her sleeve up to show us a faded burn. "There. Happy now?" Dean rolled his eyes back at her. "Fine, fine. You win."

"I always win." She said smugly, smoothing down her sleeve.

"No you don't!"

"Okay. I don't. I just always win when _you're_ concerned."

"Yeah, right!"

I pulled out a coin. "Let's see. Heads or tails?"

"Heads," said Dean immediately. "Tails," said Lauren at the same time. I flipped the coin and we all fell to our knees to see the outcome. "Ha!" laughed Lozza, pointing at Dean.

"Best of five!" he demanded. "Fine." She shrugged in a slightly arrogant way. "Three galleons on the outcome!"

"Done." I flipped the coin again.

Four tails later, Dean was three galleons lighter and swearing never to talk to Lozza again. She was smugly juggling the galleons as we walked and informing me he'd talk to her within half an hour. Dean checked his watch and firmly clamped his lips shut, and I laughed at him.

**Lauren:**

"May I talk to you?" asked an accented voice. I looked up in surprise; Mélanie looked back down at me, her eyes wide.

"Uh… okay…?" I hesitantly got to my feet and followed her, saying a quick goodbye to Dean and Seamus. Mélanie took me into an empty classroom and turned to me after shutting the door, looking uncomfortable. I eyed her mistrustfully. "I don't know where to bigeen," she said, avoiding my eye.

"You seem to have taken a liking to my boyfriend," I said, trying to sound calm but unable completely keep the coldness out of my voice.

"I 'ad no idea!" she burst out. "'E told me 'e was seventeen and 'e deed not mention you until you showed up…"

I struggled to keep my anger at bay. "What were you talking about before I came?"

"Well…" she frowned reflectively. "'E started off wiz ze Tournament; we talked about Fleur for a while, zen 'Arry Potter and Cedric Diggory. A leetle about 'Ogwarts and Beauxbatons, and zen…" she broke off suddenly.

"Go on," I said steadily.

She gave me a slightly frightened look. "Zen… we talked 'bout me for a while… 'e seemed quite interested een what I do—" I clenched my fists. "Thank you, Mélanie. You've been most informative."

"I—" but I was already out of the classroom and heading towards the Slytherin common room. "I'm sorry," she called after me, but I ignored her.

**Now, what you really want to do is click the button saying 'review'! I really want to hear if you think it's good OR bad so pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease review!**


	5. Love and Lies

"Draco."

He smiled, asked "What's up?" and held out an arm.

I didn't go to it. "Can we talk? _Alone_?" I added, eyeing Crabbe, Goyle and Blaise.

"See you later," he told them, and they left quietly. Draco and I walked out into the grounds and walked by the side of the lake. I looked at him, ant the low sunlight on his blond hair, a slight smile on his face above his high-collared black jacket — I remembered why I'd fallen in love with him in the first place.

He looked at me and his smile faltered as he took in my expression. "What did you want to talk about?"

He didn't seem very worried and I felt my anger flare. "I've just been speaking to Mélanie."

He looked surprised. "Mélanie?"

"She says you seem very interested in what she does."

"No!" he gave a small chuckle. "No, it's not like that…" I glared at him. "Oh, come on, Loz. You're going to ditch me over her?"

"And the fact that she's a pure blood."

He blinked. "So?"

"So, I'm a muggle-born and you hate muggle-borns!"

"But I don't hate _you_—!"

"Why not?"

He stared at me, disbelief etched across his face. "What do you mean, why not?"

"_Why not_? Hermione Granger is muggle-born, and so is Dean Thomas. You hate them, and what have they ever done to you? You hate them _because_ they're muggle-borns. How do you think it makes me feel, Draco, when you complain about your 'mudbloods' in front of me?

"That doesn't apply to you!"

"You've _never_ said that. It applies to all mudbloods, all muggle-borns, including me. Do you — can you — see why I can't do this?"

"Lauren, you're being ridic—"

"Don't," I said sharply. "Don't even say it. You take your Mélanie, Draco."

And then I ran.

I ran all the way up to the seventh floor. The tears were coming before I got to the door that sometimes wasn't there. I threw it open and slammed it behind me.

I was in a small room, with a hearth, a chair, a fluffy mat and a box of tissues. I fell down on the rug, leaned against the chair and sobbed.

About ten minutes later, the door opened. I held my breath, falling quiet.

"Anyone here?" asked a voice. And Irish voice.

I peered around the chair and he saw me as he shut the door behind him. "Lauren?" Seamus walked forward and kneeled in front of me. I stared back mutely.

"Um… are you alright?"

I nodded, but tears welled up in my eyes as I did. "Er…" he snatched the tissues off the mantelpiece and handed them to me. I took one, used it, then screwed it up and threw it into the fire.

He touched my arm hesitantly; then I was in his arms. He pulled me into his lap and held me while I sobbed into his shoulder for another ten minutes.

He looked down at me when I finally stopped. "Better now?"

I nodded, getting off his lap. "Thanks, Seamus…" I didn't really know him that well — I'd spoken to him, of course, but until now he'd just been Dean's best friend…

We gazed at each other for a moment, then he leaned forward.

I responded eagerly to his kiss. I didn't care that I'd broken up with Draco less than half an hour ago; I didn't care that I'd only spoken to Seamus a few times, that I knew next to nothing about him; he was mine.

And that was all that mattered.

—#~#—

It was almost a week before I talked to Seamus again. It was almost annoying; we spoke to each other so often when he and Dean met me, but now it seemed like we were almost being kept apart. He and some friends came up to me as we went to Defence Against the Dark Arts.

"Hey, Lozza," said Dean.

"Hi guys."

We walked a while together before Seamus grabbed my arm and let the others walk ahead. "I've been meaning to talk to you," he said. "About… us, you know."

"Well, what do _you_ want?"

"I…" he looked taken aback by my bluntness. "What were you crying about the other day?" he asked abruptly. I paused. "I… I'd just broken up with Draco," I muttered.

"You've broken up?" I nodded. He looked relieved, and I looked at him questioningly. "I was thinking… I mean… I didn't know, I mean, if you were cheating on him…"

"Seamus! Lauren! What are you doing? Are you coming, or what?" called Dean. We walked towards them slowly. "So — ah — are we dating? Seamus asked.

"If you want."

"Do _you_ want?"

I looked up at him, then nodded. He smiled and took my hand.

I took my usual seat between Pansy and Draco when we got to class. Parvati had bewitched a paper bird to fly around the classroom.

"Go on, Seamus, hit it,"

Seamus stood up and took a swipe at the bird. Parvati smirked and flicked it up out of the path of his hand. I smiled to myself.

"That will do, miss Patil."

Parvati obediently brought the bird to rest on her desk as professor Moody came in. A few minutes into the lesson I became aware that Draco was staring at me. I widened my eyes and shook my head slightly: _What?_

He scribbled on a piece of paper, **You came in with Gryffindors today.**

_Yes._

**Gryffindor ****guys**

_So?_

**So what's the deal!?**

_They're my friends!_

**Yeah, well, Mélanie was my friend too. What sort of friends?**

_Why do you care?_

He took a breath before replying.** You were holding Finnigan's hand.**

I took a moment to read it. Shit, I thought he hadn't seen that_. So?_ I finally replied.

"Miss Walker, Mr. Malfoy, if you could kindly leave your discussion until after class."

We jumped, and our heads snapped towards the front. "Yes, sir." _No need,_ I thought silently. _This discussion won't be continuing._

Draco screwed up the note and set fire to it.

I attached myself to the Gryffindors when I left the classroom, trying to avoid Draco. "What was that about?" asked Seamus.

"What?"

"You and Malfoy."

"Oh. Uh, he was feeling jealous."

"Of me? I thought he broke up with you?" I frowned. "_I _broke up with _him_, Seamus."

"Then why were you crying?" he sounded genuinely puzzled. I shrugged, not wanting to go into details. Seamus gazed at me for a moment longer then shrugged and dropped the subject.

I sat at the Gryffindor table that lunch, and that was the point of no return: by the next day, the entire school knew that Draco Malfoy's ex-girlfriend was dating Gryffindor Seamus Finnigan.


End file.
